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The hangar is abuzz with activity. Engineers swarm around a set of ten CASKETs in the back half of the hangar. A man, waving his arms at you to get your attention, calls you over - you head in his direction, into the swarm of engineers. As you approach the man, you notice that your name has been spray-painted onto the floor in front of your CASKET. "I'm Hale," he shouts over the roar of the hangar, and then points at a wadded-up suit on a little cart beside you. "Suit up! You guys need to be out of here in three!" He holds up 3 fingers and taps his wrist, to make sure he got his point across. "When you're done, get in the cockpit and strap in!" Without waiting to answer questions, he turns and jogs toward the next CASKET, waving another inmate over.

You pick up the suit and look around. The engineers don't even look at you as they weld a few final parts to your soon-to-be ship. Clearly, modesty isn't appreciated here. You'll have to change right where you are.

...

A few minutes later, you're sitting in your cockpit, suited and ready for combat. The weapons you've purchased are already strapped to your suit in their appropriate holsters. As the canopy closes, the din of the hangar dies down, muffled. Engineers outside make hand motions at you to start up your CASKET, and you do, pressing the appropriate buttons. You've never done this in your life, but somehow, it feels like you've done it a thousand times before. The screens about you flash and light up, the engines sputter and hum behind you, and the comms crackle to life.

It's SCAMPS, of course. "All right, assholes," he says, "I'm transferring you to lieutenant Cho Dyoun. After a few minutes with her, you'll probably want to start begging for me to come back. Don't. I'm too busy, and you're not important enough. Don't forget: You are all expendable. We've got close to a hundred of you popsicles out back still. This is an experiment to find out what our 'secret cryo program' did to your skulls. Don't come back until the mission is complete. If you fail, we'll let you die, and Anabais's platoon can scavenge our shit from the spaceport. She's an interesting one, and only mildly better than Cho. SCAMPS out."

The comms fall silent - but just for a moment. It's not long before you hear the energetic voice of a young woman. "Hellloooooo! I'm Lt. Cho Dyoun! You can call me Cho, okay? I'll be your Flight Tactics Officer for this mission, because SCAMPS is too busy. He said you people were in cryo!! It must've been so exciting - I can't wait to ask you guys more about it when you get back! ...But we should probably focus on the mission for now. You're going to have so much fun today! I wish I was still going on missions, and this place looks like it would be wonderful to explore! You're so lucky."

This is not what you expected, but you can certainly understand SCAMPS' hatred for her.

"I wish I had time to get to know all of you personally," Cho continues, "but SCAMPS said I have to get you out of here ASAP, so... I guess that means introductions will need to wait until later!" She laughs. "Now remember, everyone, I'll only be able to give you assistance within ten kilometers of the Nemesis. Our comms are in bad shape, and Huhoba Qitsit is interfering with our transmissions. We'll get that sorted soon enough, don't worry. Communicating is important! I'm going to pester our engineers until they fix it, but for now, let's get moving! Does everyone have their engines idling?" There's a pause as she checks her instruments. "Okay, good! Look at the numbers on the deck and lift off in that order. Lemons and Caleb, you're up first, followed by Buck and Frank, Brom and Bob..."

As your turn comes to take off, you apply power to the thrusters and your CASKET lifts up from the surface of the hangar, hovering effortlessly. As far as cheap fighters go, it's quite agile. You turn toward the launch tube at the front of the hangar and apply power to the engines; your ship responds accordingly. You glide carefully around the battle bridge, where it protrudes from the hangar ceiling. As you pass, you spot a young woman with dark pigtails waving enthusiastically at you. You realize it's probably Cho, but she and the bridge rapidly fall behind. It's not much longer until you're out of the hangar, accelerating down the launch tube beside one of the people from the other squad - and then you're out into the harsh, bright light of Nanyej's sun.

"Try to gain some altitude as you head northeast," Cho advises everyone. "You want to make sure you have clearance from the ground in case something happens! And... Uh oh - Reyha?"

Your FTO falls silent for a moment, seemingly talking to someone else on the battle bridge. You take your CASKET upwards while you wait, and the Nemesis falls away in the valley behind you.

Laughing nervously, Cho apologizes: "Okay, sorry guys, but there's been a slight change of plans! I was hoping to put everyone through a few quick exercises to help you get adjusted, but... well, our other FTO had one of our surviving REKT squads keeping the Huhoba fighters at bay, but they..." She pauses, trying to word it properly. You notice that her voice gets a lot higher pitched when she's nervous. When she finally speaks again, it comes out in a rush: "Well, they've seen you and they're coming down over the ridge to the north and you've got to get out of here! They weren't supposed to know you were coming, but it's too late for that now. Leave the fighters to Kendall and his group and try to evade - split up if you need to, and get to your objectives. If you can't shake them off, fly back to the Nemesis and we'll try to have our AA take them down - that's not ideal, though, because it would give them time to prepare. ... What are you waiting for?? Go! Hurry!!"

Just then, a bright streak flashes past ahead of you; a plasma barrage narrowly misses one of your squadmates. You're already in trouble, and the mission has hardly even started.

Try to determine what kind of ships the enemies are coming in on, and what weapons it looks like they have.
Maneuver lower and east to place the squad between me and the hostiles ( without ramming said squad during the maneuver ), and rush forward heading north-east.

"I propose we head to the point between A and C. As a group. Split there."

Burn full speed to J-7.

Last edited by Triggerhappy on Sat Nov 25, 2017 9:10 pm, edited 2 times in total.

((Important note: Because all the points of interest are few and far between, I'll let you travel more than the typical three kilometers per turn on this mission: I'll let you travel up to 12. Going over about 6km on a turn will take almost your entire turn. When you travel over 6km on a turn, you get two actions before you make the trip, and two actions after. However: the enemy can mostly do this as well (although, being less agile than your CASKETs, staying low to the ground and turning corners will slow them down, as SCAMPS stated during the briefing). We'll iron out the kinks as we go along.))

"I propose we head to the point between A and C. As a group. Split there."

"You're fast, Lemons. I came up with that idea myself only five seconds before you did.
I was however preoccupied with planning for the mission ahead, and so was unable to say anything."
*To the squad*
"I'd love to stick around and entertain our friends here, but we've got business to attend to.
Everyone follow me to J-7, and keep an eye out for squids."

Take off full speed towards the bottom left corner of J-7, and try not to look down unless necessary.
If I encounter any enemies, attempt to evade their attacks if possible.
Should evasion be impractical, fire once on one of attacking enemies with my railgun.

Dear FSM, of course something had to go wrong. This is a good sign of things to come, huh? I was at least hoping the mission would wait a bit to go into the toilet, but oh well. At least we still have the AA guns if we really get in a scrape. Otherwise, I'm happy to follow Frank for the moment. Might as well let someone else deal with these chumps and get the hell to the objective.

I turn the engines on full burn and fly as fast as I can towards the border between G-8 and G-9.
If the enemy ships catch up, I attempt to evade them in low-altitude turns.
If evasion doesn't work, I attempt to engage one in a turning battle, firing at it once with my laser.

The engines press me back into my seat as they propel the ship forward at a precipitous pace. I suddenly remember why I always hated orbital maneuvers and air combat...
Let's hope this works. I mumble a quick prayer to the FSM, as we usually did in the PDF. I was never especially religious, but we figured if it gave us more luck, we might as well.

Last edited by cuisinart8 on Sun Nov 26, 2017 6:57 pm, edited 1 time in total.

They weren't supposed to know you were coming, but it's too late for that now.

Oh no! Oh no no no nonononononono! Dusty one aid me!

Scream/whimper unarticulated at a low volume.
Fly as fast as possible to the border between G8 and G9.
Keep on doing evasive maneuvers and stay low to the ground.
Arriving at said destination, take a sharp turn to the south.
Try to find and use a temporary hide-out.
Ready the Microwave-field-manipulator
Fire it at the first enemy peaking into the hideout

((Now there's to hope that I can get them off my tail, or at least in front of my CASKET ))

Last edited by F4wk35 on Sun Nov 26, 2017 9:07 am, edited 1 time in total.

Bob follows Frank.
While following, use the turreted particle gun to fire a shot at the nearest enemy.
Once we arrive at the hideout/ come to a standstill, turn around, face the enemies and fire my laser towards an enemy that seems to come in our direction.
If no enemy is coming in our direction, just fire at the nearest one.

When I hit an enemy, say "look Jimmy, when you become a big teddybear that's how you fight mean guys"

Last edited by Cha0zz on Sun Nov 26, 2017 8:26 am, edited 1 time in total.

While fidgeting with the controls, trying to figure out what the heck is what:
"What was that? Where we goin'? Ah, I'll just follow the rest of ya."Go in the same direction as Brom and Lemons, try and keep up (in other words, go to point I7 while trying not to get too separated from my teammates)
Try and make turns at comfortable speeds (I don't want to end up dying in the beginning by crashing into a ridge or something)
Take a shot with the microwave at an enemy if it gets too close (no more than once)

"Evil bad enemies? That sounds kinda bad!"I full throttle forward and follow Bob.
While flying, I plug in my ship's PSI ports.
When shot at, I dodge by using my PSI to make my ship do an evasive spinny thingy.
(( No one used that mechanic since GTD mission 1, but I assume it still exists ))
If we are still pursued when nearing the destination, I fire a bubble and direct it towards the most menacing looking enemy, while shouting "BUBBLES!"